The Journey

As March Madness hits full swing once again, it always serves as a refreshing reminder of why basketball is such a great team sport. Besides the bracket mania that hits practically every workplace across the country, the various post-season tournaments (NOT JUST THE NCAA DI TOURNEY!!!) offers something even more valuable....countless stories of odds defying success by teams achieving great things through a combination of incredible individual dedication and even greater commitment to their teammates. After all, (this might be a future blog in itself), but there are fewer things that are more satisfying in life than EXCEEDING expectations against all odds.

This year, NDSU caught the nation's attention when they qualified for the tourney by winning the Horizon League Conference Championship. What's truly remarkable about this story is that the seniors of their team matriculated to NDSU knowing that they would not be able to have any hopes of March Madness for the first four years of their college experience as the school was in the process of moving from DII to the DI level. Knowing this, they embarked on a journey, a journey to prepare for one opportunity to play on college baskeball's biggest stage, the NCAA tournament.


While Kansas, and Minnesota native Cole Adrich proved to be too much for the Bison, it was Ben Woodside's comments that caught my eye. In the career ending loss in which he scored 37 points, he had this to say:

"It has been a great run for us," Woodside said. "It's been a great journey for us seniors. We won't be able to play as teammates anymore and we have been together for a long time so it definitely hurts. But the positives throughout our journey outweigh the negatives by a long shot."

This made me think of the message we constantly try to impress on our kids at Mounds View.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

High school basketball is a unique opportunity in life. For years kids spend hours upon hours playing hundreds of games, honing their skills and building relationships that hopefully culminate in something great..like a state tournament run during their senior year. However, no matter what, we want kids to savor the journey-the ups and downs, the joys and frustrations that inevitably mark every high school season along with the bus rides, the locker room moments, the open gyms, the carbo loads.....the list is endless.

While the goal is always success, regardless of the W's or L's, the journey is what remains in our memories, and ultimately makes us all better players, teammates, and people.